Sad Story of a Butterfly

The three Monarch caterpillars I brought home on a butterfly plant from The Edison Home and Gardens Sale in Fort Myers a few weeks ago, surprised me by eating almost the whole plant and growing round and fat and attractive with their yellow, black and white stripes.

Maybe too attractive!

First, I was missing one. Then two more disappeared. I looked all over for them or their cocoons for a couple of days.  One afternoon, we backed out of the garage to find a white egret in the front bed near the butterfly plant, looking all around and not even caring that we were nearby in a moving car on the driveway.

Poor caterpillars! Never to be Monarch butterflies!